Looking for exterior siding advice.

[:Jeremy:]

I am going over a few Siding ideas and need help on deciding which is right for my home. I bought a foreclosure in December and renovated the entire first floor. I have a carpenter bee problem on the exterior and the rotted wood has alot of the bees all over the place since it warmed up. I will match the detached garage with the house. House is built in the late 70's and has flagstone brick on the bottom half of house in the front. My choices I guess are vinyl, aluminum, cedar shingle, seamless steel or clapboard, thanks in advance for your help.

Rear View of House, can't find a front picture, terrible I know

[spockcat]

My choices I guess are vinyl, aluminum, cedar shingle, seamless steel or clapboard, thanks in advance for your help.

Not saying it would look good on the house but you didn't mention stucco. Post some good pics of the house and I'm sure there will be plenty of comments.

After our house fire we switched from vertical cedar siding to board and batten look vinyl siding from Crane. It has a layer of foam insulation backing. We feel the house is more quiet inside and better insulated.

[Cabby-Blitz]

I dislike vinyl and aluminum siding on all houses. I prefer and have used fibercement siding from Certainteed or JamesHardie. Looks good and very durable. You can even get them prepainted from the factory. Not sure how it would look on your more traditional house though. You will want to make sure and not go to far outside the box on what is traditionally used on your house style.

[:Jeremy:]

Carpenter bee damage

[spockcat]

Looks like a board and batten over stone on the lower half. Kind of a barn-like look going for it. It is quite dark now. How is the roof on the house? I wonder if a change to a lighter color would be help it along with a lighter color on the body of the house (obviously not the stone).

[GeoffD]

I think white stucco English Tudor would look really nice on that house. You can use 4x8 fiber-cement stucco panels and save a lot of labor. Impervious to insects.

[Mk1Racer]

I like that Tudor look, but I'm not sure you have enough space on the house to make it work. If you want to go w/ a clapboard look, I would suggest Hardi-Plank. It comes in several different exposures, can be ordered primed, in one of several stock colors, or custom painted (more expensive and longer lead time). I believe the factory colors carry a lifetime warrant on the finish. Great looking product, impervious to rot and insects, and costs < 1/2 of what cedar clapboard costs.

[silverspeedbuggy]

If it were me, I'd also get a quote on replacing/repairing the existing siding. I realize it's your house and you can do whatever you want to it, but I think the house is very charming as-is. Covering that siding with plastic or aluminum (or even shake shingles) would reduce the appeal of the home.

That's just me though.

[:Jeremy:]

If it were me, I'd also get a quote on replacing/repairing the existing siding. I realize it's your house and you can do whatever you want to it, but I think the house is very charming as-is. Covering that siding with plastic or aluminum (or even shake shingles) would reduce the appeal of the home.

That's just me though.

I was going to do this but those carpenter bees are ruthless, is there a special paint I can use or something to deter them?

[Jettavr666]

If it were me, I'd also get a quote on replacing/repairing the existing siding. I realize it's your house and you can do whatever you want to it, but I think the house is very charming as-is. Covering that siding with plastic or aluminum (or even shake shingles) would reduce the appeal of the home.

That's just me though.

x2, i would get all the holes repaired (im sure some rock hard putty would work) and then paint it a brighter lighter color.

as far as the carpenter bee's a quick google search yielded this.

http://www.logfinish.com/store/carpe...esolutions.php

http://www.carpenterbees.com/stain/a...-to-paint.html

remember wood has been used as siding for eons, vinyl is fairly new and some looks bad very quick. Also i would not change from the vertical grain you have now even if you do get new siding. Lastly FWIW your house probably developed the bee problem from lack of maintinance, make sure its all maintained, and they are fully gone, then do a quality paint job.

[barry2952]

I was going to do this but those carpenter bees are ruthless, is there a special paint I can use or something to deter them?

Exterminate them and plug the holes. The board and batten look is right for that house.

However, I don't know that trapping that much biological material behind the wall is such a good idea. You could strip the siding, spray the wall cavities with foam, reinstall as much salvaged lumber as possible and buy new to finish.

[:Jeremy:]

Exterminate them and plug the holes. The board and batten look is right for that house.

However, I don't know that trapping that much biological material behind the wall is such a good idea. You could strip the siding, spray the wall cavities with foam, reinstall as much salvaged lumber as possible and buy new to finish.

Most likely what I am going to do, I like the HardiePlank siding but don't know if it would fit this style house. I love the outside apperance, just need to fix some pieces and do a respray. Thanks for all the input guys.

[barry2952]

The beauty of board and batten is that you can remove two battens to gain access to the board. You can make removal of the board and battens much easier by drilling the heads off of the nails. The board will come off with little resistance once the heads are gone.



Read this:

http://mike-thomson.com/blog/?p=406

[99blackmagic]

Most likely what I am going to do, I like the HardiePlank siding but don't know if it would fit this style house. I love the outside apperance, just need to fix some pieces and do a respray. Thanks for all the input guys.

Check the Hardie website, they have a vertical siding that can be used with their "hardietrim" to make a board & batten. I have a friend who used it on her whole barn. You can get smooth or wood textured. http://www.jameshardie.com/homeowner...panelSiding.py

just wanted to share what i found. I'm looking at siding replacement in the next 5 years and have been tempted to go with prefinished Hardie, so i noticed the vertical as one of the options.

[eldealero]

Check the Hardie website, they have a vertical siding that can be used with their "hardietrim" to make a board & batten.

I actually have this on my house. You can see it on the left side of this picture:

[Mk1Racer]

Check the Hardie website, they have a vertical siding that can be used with their "hardietrim" to make a board & batten. I have a friend who used it on her whole barn. You can get smooth or wood textured. http://www.jameshardie.com/homeowner...panelSiding.py

just wanted to share what i found. I'm looking at siding replacement in the next 5 years and have been tempted to go with prefinished Hardie, so i noticed the vertical as one of the options.

I didn't look at the website, but this doesn't surprise me. They also make a shake product. It's just way more expensive than the plank siding.

[SamGerald]

I think the siding looks great, as long as you make allowances for the carpenter bees issue.

[barry2952]

Interesting first post, Sam. You wouldn't happen to be affiliated with that company, would you?

There's a word for that.............

[Merc-MarkO]

Seeing threads like this and having had issues with the siding on my own house really makes we wish I could have a concrete block built house with pebble dash 'siding'. My parents house is 40yrs old with 0 issues.

[Karmanniac]

F**king cedar siding on my parents' house, or rather, the idiots who installed it...spaced it out so they could save as many planks at possible, then when it dried out it left gaps in the laps. Oh, and for the woodpecker that cut a hole in it 30' up in the air? F you too.

[barry2952]

Speaking of cedar siding, I used factory-painted rough-sawn cedar. No knots.

We hear a noise in our attic. I put mouse poison up there and it goes untouched. It would be quiet for a day or two and then come back. It was driving our dog and cats nuts. Called critter control. he says we must have a red squirrel. He said if we had one we'd find a golfball-sized whole somewhere in the overhang. I was adamant that I left no gaps and used only clear lumber. As we walked around the house he spotted this. That little bastard had chewed a hole right through my cedar.



The critter control guy showed me a red squirrel he had trapped alive. Very nasty critters. Very territorial. I was told that if you had other critters in your attic you had them no more. Look at those claws.





He set two traps, but cautioned me that if the little bugger were trapped outdoors, and it rained, he was so high strung that he would have a heart attack and die.



Sure enough, it rained that night. I went out and saw his lifeless arm hanging through the trap, blowing in the breeze.